Today's communication networks provide transport of voice, video and data to both residential and commercial customers, with more and more of those customers being connected by fiber optic cables. In these communication networks, information is transmitted from one location to another by sending pulses of light through the fiber optic cables. Fiber optic transmission provides several advantages over electrical transmission techniques, such as increased bandwidth and lower losses.
Fiber optic connection boxes are used in fiber optic networks to store and secure a fiber optic connection and associated lengths of fiber optic cabling. These fiber optic connections include physical splices of optical fibers and other standardized connections, such as SC connections. For example, the customer-side fiber optic cabling, which comes from the customer's building, can be connected with the service-provider network cabling, which is external to the customer's building. Both the customer-side fiber optic cabling and the service-provider cabling are routed into the connection box with some extra slack to allow for easy manipulation of the cabling. The connection is then effectuated and the excess lengths of fiber optic cabling are secured within the connection box. Optical circuitry (either passive or active) may be connected with the spliced cable and also stored within the connection box.
There are several important considerations in the design of a fiber optic connection box. For example, the most brittle parts of the fiber optic cabling should be protected from other items stored within the connection box. Many installations utilize fiber optic cable with very little protection for the optical fibers. The potential exists that these relatively vulnerable lengths of cabling may chafe against other items in the connection box, such as jacketed fiber optic cabling, which is more rugged. Furthermore, if the connection involves a splice, the splice should be protected from exterior pulling forces that are applied from outside of the connection box. Examples of pulling forces include pressure applied by installers at an opposite end of the cable and thermal expansion/contraction of the cable due to changes in temperature.
One important design consideration for fiber optic connection boxes is the space efficiency. The number and volume of the fiber optic cables utilized in modern fiber optic networks continues to grow in response to the need for increased bandwidth. In some instances, the network is built out such that there is little or no room to increase the size of the connection box. However, the need to optimize space efficiency can conflict with other considerations. For example, a fiber optic connection box that is too small suffers from the drawback that the likelihood of chafing between the fiber optic cabling is higher because the cabling is more densely packed.
Thus, there is a need to provide a connection box that is used to secure and store a splice between service-provider cabling and customer-side fiber optic cabling in a space efficient manner while protecting the cabling from damage.